Person:David Fossan (1)

David Fossan, 68, Nuclear Physicist at Stony Brook By Olivia Winslow STAFF WRITER

July 30, 2003

David Fossan, a renowned nuclear physicist who taught and conducted research at Stony Brook University for nearly 40 years, died Sunday following a heart attack while swimming at Fire Island, his wife said. He had been on an annual outing with his research group.

Fossan, who was 68, was lauded by university officials in a statement yesterday as a man "who went out of his way to offer an encouraging word and to go the extra mile for his students, colleagues and friends."

His wife, Ann, said her husband of 39 years "just loved people. He was very friendly and loved to talk to people. He was a very kind person."

He was also a man of "tremendous energy," she added. He poured that energy into his work. University officials said Fossan was the author of more than 250 papers in physics journals and he was invited to numerous international symposia to talk about his work.

Fossan was born in Faribault, Minn. He attended St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where he received a bachelor's degree in math and physics in 1956, his wife said. He earned a master's degree and a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin.

After a post-doctoral appointment at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Fossan arrived in 1965 at Stony Brook's Department of Physics and Astronomy, where he was one of the founders of the experimental nuclear physics program and a "major force" in creating the university's Nuclear Structural Laboratory in the late 1960s. He and his wife lived in East Setauket.

Fossan was a founding member of a group that conceived and built the "Gammasphere," the world's most powerful gamma-ray detector facility now housed at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, according to Stony Brook. The university said he helped develop experimental techniques needed to investigate properties of nuclei in extreme conditions, work that has changed the way physicists think about the subject.

Fossan received many honors during his professional career. He was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, received the Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Award, an international honor given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany, and was an inaugural recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research in 2002.

At Stony Brook, Fossan was adviser to more than 20 doctoral students and mentor to many post-doctoral fellows, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers, according to the university. He has taught nearly every course in his department, from introductory physics to graduate nuclear physics.

Ann Fossan said her husband was "interested in everything," from politics to international affairs.

"And he loved sports," and was particularly fond of the New York Yankees. "He worked very hard and his outlet was sports." She said he played tennis "almost every day that he could."

Besides his wife, survivors include three daughters, Jennifer Sabier of Kensington, Calif., Kirsten Newquist of La Canada, Calif., and Stephanie Fossan of La Crescenta, Calif; a sister, Virginia Griffiths of Hopkins, Minn.; and eight grandchildren.

Ann Fossan said a memorial service is planned at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to The Steeple Fund at the Setauket Presbyterian Church, 5 Caroline Ave., Setauket, NY, 11733; or St. Olaf College, in memory of David Fossan, 1520 St. Olaf Ave., Northfield, Minn., 55057, sent to the attention of John Lygre.